University Relations Style Guide Crib Sheet
Note: The following is meant as a guide to writing copy for all non-academic University publications. It is not a comprehensive reference.
- When writing press releases or promotional copy, try to use Northwest Missouri State University in the first sentence or at least the first paragraph. On second reference just write “Northwest.” Never use NWMSU as an abbreviation of the school’s name.
- Capitalize University when referring to Northwest. Capitalize Foundation when referring to the Northwest Foundation Inc. Again, use full titles on first reference.
- When describing when and were an event takes place use the following form: “The show begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 15, in Mary Linn Auditorium at the Performing Arts Center.”
- Abbreviate the months of Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. when used with a date. Spell out when using alone. Always spell out March, April, May, June and July.
- Prefer “more than” to “over”: (More than 2,000 people attended Career Day). This is a preference, however, not a rule. Sometimes “over” in this sense is preferable in order to avoid redundancy.
- Here is another preference: “take place” instead of “be held.” (Tonight’s basketball game will take place in Bearcat Arena). In fact, beware of all “be” verbs. They signal that you’re using the passive voice, which is often not the best way to say something.
- A third preference: “sponsored” instead of “hosted.”
- For telephone and fax numbers use the format 660.562.1704. For internal communications the form ext. 1704 is sufficient. If the information is for both internal and external use try 660.562.1704 (ext. 1704 on campus).
- There is never a “first annual” anything. Use “inaugural” if you like. Phrases like “second annual Northwest Powwow” do not, unlike most compound adjectives, require a hyphen.
- Use the forms a.m. and p.m. with all times except noon and midnight. There is no such thing as 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. Events occurring on the hour do not require :00, those occurring between the hour obviously do take that form (10:30 a.m., 4:10 p.m.). Avoid redundancies like 10 a.m. this morning.
- When expressing even dollar amounts, use the numeral without zeroes: $5 not $5.00.
- Don’t use postal abbreviations for states except in a mailing address. Prefer Mo., Kan., Neb., Penn., Mass., etc. See the “AP Stylebook” for a complete list of state abbreviations. Iowa, by the way, is always spelled out, as are Ohio, Utah, Hawaii, Maine and Texas.
- Always look up job titles in the Northwest phone book. When titling a member of the faculty or staff include both their title or academic rank and department/office name. We don’t use the courtesy titles Mr., Mrs. and Ms.
Here are a couple of examples: Don Davis, associate director of environmental services, and Dr. Jane Everett, associate professor of chemistry and physics.
- If the person’s title appears before his or her name, capitalize it. If it appears after the name, don’t capitalize it: Vice President for University Relations Melvin Landis; Melvin Landis, vice president for university relations.
- Coaches are an exception to the rule. The title “Coach,” is capitalized before a name when it stands alone (Coach Matt Thomson. It is not capitalized when used with adjectives (head football coach Matt Thompson).
- Spell out numbers through nine. Use figures for numbers 10 and higher. Always use figures for ages and percentages (The boy is 5 years old. The faculty and staff will receive a pay increase of 4 percent. The faculty and staff will receive a 4-percent pay increase.) Many rules apply to numbers, so it’s best to consult the “AP Stylebook.”
- When listing high school students for "hometowner" news releases, list by state, hometown, high school, then alphabetically by last name (but put first name first).
- Use only one space following a period when punctuating a sentence.
- There is no need to place a comma before the “and” that precedes the last item in a series. (His favorite sports are football, basketball, rugby and baseball.)
- Do not use “entitled” to mean “titled.” Someone is entitled to special privileges. Mark Twain's most famous novel is titled "Huckleberry Finn."
- Underway is one word. Underways is not a word.
- Lowercase spring, summer, fall and winter. Such phrases as fall trimester are lowercased as well.
- Do not use “&” unless it’s part of a company’s proper name.
- Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks. Colons and semicolons go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quote.
- Never use exclamation marks in formal writing!
- Use an apostrophe in phrases like bachelor’s degree and master’s degree. As a general rule this construction is preferable to the abbreviations B.S., B.A., B.S.Ed., M.S., M.S. Ed., M.A., Ed.D., Ph.D. and so forth.
- For some reason, there seems to be a lot of confusion about possessives, so here’s how they work: form possessives by adding apostrophe-s (’s) to the noun, as in “the child’s toy” or “Tonya’s preferences for punctuation” or “the provost’s office.”
If the noun ends in “s” add the apostrophe only: (I saw Lois’ husband at the ball game last night.) Plural possessives work the same way: “The children’s toys are all broken” or “The deans’ offices are in the west wing on the second floor of the Administration Building.”
Some of you will have had composition teachers who taught you to form plural possessives ending is “s” thusly: “The Jones’s new car,” but that style is no longer used in most journalistic writing. We now write, “The Jones’ new car is a Porsche.”
One other common error with regard to possessives is “its.” The contraction “it’s” means “it is.” But, “The lost puppy yelped with glee when its owner unlocked the front door.”
Finally – and anyone who remembers this phrase from high school gets a gold star – “pronominal possessives,” such as hers, its, theirs, yours and ours, have no apostrophe, but indefinite pronouns do need an apostrophe to show possession. For example, one must defend one’s liberty. Also we write, “That is her coat, but this is somebody else’s jacket.”
- Use a department’s or office’s full name on first reference and capitalize (the Office of University Relations, the Department of Art). When not using the formal name, don’t capitalize (the art department). This does not allow for the lowercasing of proper nouns. Always write “the English department.”
- Use “toward” not “towards” and “afterward” not “afterwards.”
- Write “adviser” not “advisor” in ordinary communications, especially press releases. Some University offices, such as Admissions, permissibly use “advisor” in a specialized sense in their own publications and Web postings.
- Capitalize the word “Web” (Web page, Web site). Hyphenate e-mail.
- Do not hyphenate fundraiser and fundraising, though the hyphen is still considered correct according to a number of dictionaries and style guides.
- In quotes, use this style: “I covered that in the first part of the presentation,” Larabee said. Which is to say that in most cases the word “said” follows the quoted person’s name.
- Writers often confuse “that” and “which,” but there is a difference. If you can’t remove a clause from a sentence without substantially changing its meaning use “that.” If you can remove the clause – or can easily place it inside parentheses – use “which.”
Examples: “Daryl thinks the beret that Tom wears when it’s cold outside looks silly.” “Daryl thinks Tom's beret, which he wears when it’s cold outside, looks silly.”
- People often get confused about whether to set off the name of someone’s wife or husband with commas. Without getting all grammatical, we’ll just note that it is best to do so. Writing “Tom and his wife, Vicky, attended the Christmas party,” means just that. Writing “Tom and his wife Vicky attended the Christmas party” means Tom has more than one wife.
- Use a comma between independent clauses separated by a conjunction (usually and or but). An independent clause is one that, grammatically speaking, can stand alone as a sentence: “I’m going to the regents’ meeting, and I won’t be back until 5 p.m.” Note that both “I’m going to the regents’ meeting” and “I won’t be back until 5 p.m.” could be written independently.
On the other hand, “I’m going to the regents’ meeting and won’t be back until 5 p.m.” contains a single independent clause, “I’m going to the regents’ meeting,” and so takes no comma before the word “and.”